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Aviation Bill: Replacing 90-Year-Old Act

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By Rediff Money Desk, New Delhi   Dec 03, 2024 20:12

India's Rajya Sabha debates a bill to replace the 90-year-old Aircraft Act, aiming to boost ease of doing business and attract investments in the aviation sector. The bill also seeks to address concerns raised by ICAO and provide a robust regulatory framework.
Aviation Bill: Replacing 90-Year-Old Act
New Delhi, Dec 3 (PTI) The Rajya Sabha on Tuesday took up a bill which seeks to remove redundancies and replace the 90-year-old Aircraft Act to boost ease of doing business to attract investments in the aviation sector.

The Bharatiya Vayuyan Vidheyak, 2024, was passed in the Lok Sabha in the last session of Parliament in August this year.

Moving the bill for consideration and passage, Union Aviation Minister Kinjarapu Rammohan Naidu said that the bill was taken up after a suggestion by The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) to amend the principal act.

During the debate on the bill Congress members Syed Naseer Hussain and Pramod Tiwari sought to raise the Adani issue in the House and demanded an investigation into the bribery charges but were disallowed by the Chair.

Naidu mentioned that the aviation sector has the potential to drive the economy and should be expanded.

He informed the House that the number of airports has increased from 74 in 2014 to 157 in the country and the fleet size has also doubled from 400 (aircraft) in 2014 to 813.

"In the earlier Act, only the world maintenance was mentioned. There was no definition. Now we adding design and manufacturing also. We are also defining all these three terms (in the new law). We have brought the appeal system," he stated.

The minister explained that most of the times, we amend rules of the Act with backing of the principal act and that is why we are amending the principal act.

"We are giving strong legal backing to the rules under the Act," he stressed.

He also stated that today everybody wants to have an airport in their district.

"We want to cater to those dreams. We want to build those airports. We feel that if we cannot do it today, it will be a challenge tomorrow. The land is going to be scarce," he added.

"We have organised everything in the bill which provides different section for powers of bodies like DGCA. So there is clear demarcation and indication on which each body has to do as recommended by ICAO," he stated.

The Bill seeks to resolve existing anomalies between various aviation laws and ensure a coherent regulatory environment with well-defined chapters and clauses.

With the proposed legislation, the ministry also aims to promote the ease of flying by having a robust regulatory framework, encouraging foreign direct investment, and ensuring compliance with international conventions and best practices.

Congress MP Syed Naseer Hussain raised the point that the name of the bill should not be in Hindi as 60 per cent of the population is non-Hindi Speaking.

He said that naming the bill in Hindi is an exclusionary trend as it is difficult for non-Hindi-speaking people to comprehend.

He asked about the autonomy the agencies would have in the civil aviation sector.

"Given the government's tendency of centralising everything, there is a matter of grave concern. The bill says that appeals against the order DGCA or BCAS will lie before the union government. No further appeals will be allowed against the union government order. So it remains to be seen how professionally and independently would such agencies be able to function while before under direct control of union government," he said.

During the discussion on the Bill, Hussain also alleged that NITI Aayog and the Finance Ministry had raised objections during the bidding of six airports which were awarded to the Adani Group.

Hussain also claimed that the country's foreign policy is being structured to promote one person, to which members of the BJP objected, demanding that he should stick to the scope of the Bill under discussion.

Leader of the House J P Nadda rose to seek that all remarks made by Husain which were not in the scope of the Bill be expunged.

Nadda said he (Hussain) was not speaking on the subject but was maligning and using the name of the Prime Minister, which is objectionable.

"We should maintain the dignity of the House," Nadda said, requesting the Chairman that the references not within the scope of the Bill be omitted.

Hussain asked what is unparliamentary in his speech, asking if the charge that our foreign policy was being structured to promote one person unparliamentary?

Another Congress member, Pramod Tiwari, sought to know if the word 'Adani' is unparliamentary.

Aam Aadmi Party member Raghav Chadha demanded that airlines should compensate passengers for every hour of flight delay, saying that delays of three to four hours have become common.

"If there is an excess baggage of even one kilogram, airlines charge passengers thousands of rupees but do they compensate us for a flight delay of several hours," he asked, urging the aviation minister to create a mechanism whereby airlines compensate passengers for every hour of delay caused by them.
Source: PTI
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